“I think it is very important that, as elected officials, we do not set our own compensation.”
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Members of Edmonton city council are getting automatic pay raises for the second year in a row, and Amarjeet Sohi is among the highest-paid mayors in the country.
Salaries are going up 2.41 per cent in 2024, the same rate as last year. Raises were revealed in a Jan.17 memo to council made public on the city’s open data website last week, and also on the city’s website in late January. Increases are automatic, set using a regulatory mechanism in a council policy last reviewed in 2020.
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Mayor Amarjeet Sohi’s base salary for 2024 is $216,585, up from $211,488 in 2023.
City councillors’ base salary is $122,363 up from $119,484 in 2023.
The Edmonton salaries are comparable to, but slightly higher than their Calgary counterparts: Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s base salary is $213,737 and councillors will be paid $120,755 in 2024. The figures don’t include other benefits and spending accounts.
But Edmonton’s mayor’s pay stands out as among the highest in major Canadian cities reviewed by Postmedia, as does pay for city councillors.
The mayor of the City of Markham appears to be highest-paid in Canada by far with a salary of $268,469 in 2022 — the only Ontario city other than Toronto that paid their mayor more than $200,000 that year according to Ontario’s most recent Sunshine List.
Toronto Mayor Oliva Chow’s base salary for 2024 is around $223,000. Other mayors that earn more than $200,000 include Winnipeg ($213,327), Vancouver ($205,914, plus a $3,048 supplement) and Halifax ($200,853).
Other big-city or capital-city mayors make less, including those in Quebec City ($171,613 in 2023), Regina ($163,428), Mississauga ($149,756), St. John’s ($136,569 in 2023), Victoria ($131,050) and Fredericton ($73,118 in 2023).
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Council benefits or spending accounts were not analyzed.
Edmonton, Calgary mayors paid more than premier
Both the mayors of Alberta’s two largest cities make more money than the premier.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s salary was $186,180 in 2023. Her 2024 pay has not yet been released. City councillors made about the same as backbench MLAs ($120,936).
The big city mayors and the premier were paid similarly until then-premier Jason Kenney cut his own and other MLA’s salaries in 2019, dropping his salary from $206,856 to $186,175. At the time, former mayor Don Iveson’s base salary was $205,340 while former mayor Naheed Nenshi’s base pay was $200,586.
Edmonton’s previous city council brought in an independent committee to review pay and in 2020 recommended council salaries increase or decrease based on the economic indicator Alberta Average Weekly Earnings, which was adopted. But city council voted to freeze wages for two years for 2021 and 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Council members took automatic raises again in 2023.
Base pay does not include benefits or other spending accounts.
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Sohi’s salary up $10,000 since election
Council’s wages have increased substantially since they were elected in 2021 because of the policy set by the previous council.
Sohi’s 2024 salary is more than $10,000 higher than when he began his term in 2021. Councillors’ salaries rose more than $5,000 in the same timeframe.
Asked about his current pay given the municipality’s cost constraints, and Edmonton’s high ranking among other Canadian municipalities, Sohi reiterated that city council does not choose the salaries.
The last review of council pay happened before he was elected, Sohi said, and a new independent committee is being set up to review pay again this year.
“I think it is very important that, as elected officials, we do not set our own compensation. It has to be set by an independent third party, and we need to abide by whatever those recommendations might be,” he told Postmedia on Monday.
“(The committee) did that assessment before I got elected and made recommendations for whatever raises or decreases that council will receive in the future.”
Ask why a $10,000 raise since 2021 is justified, the mayor said again his salary is based on recommendations from a third party.
“I think it is a very slippery slope when politicians started determining what their compensation level should be,” he said.
“That is not our role. What we get paid should be determined by an independent body of experts and community members. That’s exactly what happened here.”
Montreal’s mayor froze council salaries in December. Toronto’s mayor said she did not want increases but that city council ultimately voted in favour.
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